In 1963, the revelation that Kim Philby was a member of the Cambridge Five brought one of the most damaging intelligence scandals in British history into the open, confirming suspicions that had circulated for years within the corridors of Whitehall and beyond.

Born on 1 January 1912 in Ambala, Philby was a British citizen who received his education at Westminster School and later Trinity College. He worked as a journalist and opinion journalist alongside his career as a British intelligence officer — roles that, in retrospect, served as cover for his parallel work as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He operated with sufficient standing within British intelligence to receive the Order of the British Empire, and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, decorations that underscored how thoroughly he had embedded himself within the establishment he was secretly working against.

The exposure of his true allegiances in 1963 brought his life in Britain to an end. Philby was fluent in both English and Russian, and he lived out his remaining years in Moscow, where he died on 11 May 1988. In addition to the honours he had received from the British state, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner by the Soviet Union — formal recognition, from one side of the intelligence divide, of the work he had carried out over the course of his career. The contrast between those Soviet decorations and the British honours he had accumulated before his unmasking remains a concrete measure of the double life he sustained for decades as a spy.